The 12 days of GCHQ quizmas: test your brain power with these daily puzzles

How to shoot Instagram Hyperlapses effectively

ADVERTISEMENT

Hyperlapse, Instagram's new app, is designed to make your iPhone videos a lot more watchable. That's how it's supposed to work, anyway. The app isn't even a day old, and the Internet is already full of super-zoomy, multi-axis clips that are basically concentrated, digital motion sickness.

Hyperlapse has a ton of potential for creativity, but let's all master the basics before breaking the mould. Because in this case, the mould is actually a metaphor for not wanting to throw up, OK?

Read more

Watch a frantic timelapse of the 2,526-piece LEGO Batcave being built

ByMike Dent

More than meets the UI

It seems so simple, but Hyperlapse is a deceptively complex app. It has both video-speed adjustments and an incredibly sophisticated digital stabilisation system; those two features can help you capture two very different kinds of movies.

As its name suggests, Hyperlapse can capture videos with a sped-up time-lapse effect -- up to 12 times normal speed. It's handy for shooting your own Benny Hill chase sequences, capturing sunsets, and unlocking the mystery of what your cat does when you're not in the room. But though Hyperlapse can eliminate small shakes, drastic changes of direction can look jarring at high playback speeds.

ADVERTISEMENT

Read more

How to make a panning GoPro fixture for excellent time-lapses

ByJeremy Cook

The second type of Hyperlapse video is less obvious: the tracking shot, in which you physically follow a moving subject with your camera. You've probably seen a lot of tracking shots, including the incredible ones in True Detective, The Shining, and Goodfellas (as well as its tribute scene in Swingers). For a tracking shot, you'll normally want to keep the playback speed on the low end of the slider. Hyperlapse's stabilisation is the star here; dig that smooth, smooth flow.

Doin' it, and doin' it, and doin' it well

It's helpful to think of time-lapse shots and tracking shots as complete opposites -- at least as far as Hyperlapse is concerned.

ADVERTISEMENT

For tracking shots, the camera will be in motion, but you'll want to keep the playback speed low to eliminate discomforting motion effects. If you're following a toddler's run of terror through the backyard and house like a Family Circus comic come to life, you just want the smooth footage to tell the story. You barely need to speed it up, if at all. (It also helps to try to move as smoothly and slowly as possible -- the stabilisation can only do so much.)

For videos that you're planning on playing back at high speeds, try keeping the camera completely still. (You don't want your eyes to feel like they're on a roller coaster, while your semicircular canals disagree.) If you must move the camera, stick to one direction over the course of the video -- like shooting out the window of a moving car. For more inspiration, the sample movies in Hyperlapse's demo video are good starting points.

Also, remember that you are speeding up these videos when you shoot them. Three minutes of source footage sped up at 12x will represent just 15 seconds after it's been fully Hyperlapsified.

With that in mind, shoot longer than you're accustomed to with a smartphone. You can import and edit videos of up to 45 minutes in Hyperlapse, which you can then save to your Video roll. You won't be able to post videos longer than 15 seconds on Instagram, but you can post them elsewhere.

And even though Hyperlapse can smooth out slightly shaky video, it will crop the source footage a bit to do so. Because of the way Hyperlapse's digital stabilisation works, you'll want to make sure important parts of your scene aren't at the edges of the frame. The app keeps footage smooth by keeping a centre portion of the frame steady, then cropping around the edges.

ADVERTISEMENT

Breakin' the law

Once you've mastered the art of creating smooth, sped-up videos that won't make your viewers vomit, you may want to graduate to more complex projects. There are some excellent Hyperlapse videos out there that play around with different speeds in a single video, as well as some that manage to combine sped-up effects with camera movement effectively.

But until you know you're an experimental Hyperlapse virtuoso, it's a good idea to keep all those herky-jerky videos out of everyone's Facebook feed. It's been a rough day.